"Chirp... chirp..."
Bright sunlight slanted down alongside the crisp, lively birdsong, broken by the layered canopy—neither dense nor sparse—into shafts of light that fell over the halted Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Akimichi Choji.
"Do we really have to do this?"
At this moment, Akimichi Choji, standing behind Shikamaru Nara, spoke somewhat timidly.
"I just feel like... it isn't very realistic."
Before Shikamaru Nara could respond, Ino Yamanaka, standing to the side, spoke hesitantly.
"What else are we supposed to do?"
Hearing his two teammates, Shikamaru Nara—usually wearing a lazy, troublesome expression—now looked grave and bitter as he spoke these seemingly helpless words.
"Pretend we don't know?"
Akimichi Choji grabbed a fistful of chips, crunched and swallowed them awkwardly, then said as much.
"Can you fool yourself?"
Shikamaru Nara countered.
He had barely slept at all last night because of this. Honestly, Shikamaru Nara couldn't convince himself to pretend he knew nothing.
"Shikamaru..."
Hearing that, Ino Yamanaka's lips moved, but she fell silent.
She couldn't convince herself either.
Because this matter was simply too shocking—so shocking that she had nearly failed to sleep properly.
Even when she woke up that morning, the unease and shock still hadn't subsided.
At that moment, Akimichi Choji also fell silent. Even his hand, which had been eating snacks, paused.
"We have to get to the bottom of this. If it's true, then..."
Meanwhile, Shikamaru Nara wore a grave expression.
With those words, he started forward again, walking toward the faintly visible sea of flowers ahead.
Seeing Shikamaru Nara walk on, Ino Yamanaka and Akimichi Choji exchanged a glance before ultimately following him.
Hmm...
It had been so long since he had properly paid attention to whether the weather was nice or not.
Chiba gently set the tea and fruit tray on the tatami